Inspired by Leonard Cohen’s “Be With Me” I made this collage of medals and relics in November 2010, possibly – sinfully – triumphantly justifying my hoarding of the family collection of such religious/superstitious – but also historically valuable – memorabilia and taliswomen. Leonard Cohen was...

America has rejected a female heart and brain surrounded by a bevy of brilliant women, in favour of a male ego surrounded by rotund, jowly old white conservative capitalist males. Ahead of the vote, result or its latest publication date, the New Yorker Magazine released its...

For months I have been consumed and obsessed with the US Presidential Election, spending so much time on computer, radio and television that I barely got in the harvest before the first frost hit. I have also become a bore on social media, dealing with...

One of the most enjoyable gigs I ever covered as a journalist was the World Irish Dancing Championships when it was held in Cork. I wish I one of the 7,000 spectators along with the 1,600 competitors at Oireachtas Rince na h-Éireann 2016...

In August 1999, there was a total eclipse of the sun. Living in the Mardyke area of Cork city between the River Lee and the University, I was waiting for the phenomenon. A few moments before the appointed time, early afternoon, it...

It’s not losing our glasses that causes us the most grief anymore, not even losing our keys or the odd sock….it’s our telephones. Our personal telephones are like our gods, they are called a different name in each religion and each culture, but essentially, they...

It is the last Sunday in August on Lake Annecy. It is 38 degrees, and I am alone, sitting at the dining table on the terrace, shaded by a loggia of jasmine, wisteria and clematis, eating my Sunday lunch, before packing my Stand Up...

Woke up this morning worrying about earthworms. In a landscape increasingly covered in concrete, how do they breathe or mate? Without oxygen, worms suffocate. Earthworms breathe through their skin and come up to the surface at night to mate if they feel so inclined....

(PIC from the “Body Language” blog article “The 23 Best Places in Berlin to watch Euro 2016” reproduced by “Slow Travel Berlin.”) Berlin in summertime is dappled….so many trees and the glint of water, and the smell of dog shit and lime blossom. Being winter...

After a few episodes it became rather tedious, but there was one great song in the first series of the TV sit-com “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.” In the Bollywood style, the refrain to “I’m so good at Yoga” is “Look at me, look at me, I’m...